Bluntmen hack SimCity to promote the wicked weed

Why was SimCity hit? Pot luck, really...

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Electronic Arts' SimCity 3000 Web site has been hacked. But for once the attempt to replace the site's front page wasn't some act of cyberterrorism -- though battling virtual brigands is one of the game's numerous challenges to would-be city planners -- but a call for the legalisation of marijuana.

"Your [site] is now a casualty of the war of legalizing marijuana. If marijuana was legalized I would be smoking mad blunts instead of defacing your webpage," wrote one of the Toked Hacking Crew (THC) in place of EA's usual collection of downloads, news and plugs to punters who have yet to buy the game.

"Nothing malicious was done to your site or systems, just this little change, as a contribution to the legalization of marijuana," THC went on. It's not clear why THC targeted the SimCity site in particular -- beyond its clearly inadequate security provisions - though we note the original homepage (nicely preserved by THC, EA will be pleased to hear - the games giant's web team haan't spotted the hack yet) contains screenshots showing a particularly verdant city scene. What, perhaps, are the good townsfolk growing between their skyscrapers, we wonder? Surely not grass? ®